Ælfric's Grammar, A Single Witness Edition
Date
2018-06-29
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis consists of a single-witness edition of the text of Ælfric of Eynsham’s (c. 955 × 1010–20) Grammar based on the 11th century manuscript London, British Library, Harley 3271, together with an introduction which both surveys the work’s historical context and discusses key features of the text itself. An overrarching theme of the introduction is the significance of the Grammar’s peculiar place in the history of textual transmission and of education in medieval England as it was the first translation of a Latin grammar into a vernacular European language. It thus provided its readers a more easily attainable access to Latin, the language of learning, for which reason Ælfric himself calls the text “the key that unlocks the meaning of books.”
Description
Keywords
Ælfric, Grammar, Grammatica, Anglo-Saxon England, Old English, Latin, Medieval Latin
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Interdisciplinary Studies
Program
Interdisciplinary Studies